Tory peer Baron Bell of Belgravia makes tasteless joke about Germanwings crash live on air

Baron Bell of Belgravia warned he would be 'shot' for the joke but told it anyway

(Jonathan Evans)

A radio station has apologised after a Conservative peer made a tasteless joke live on air about a recent air crash in which 150 people died.

Margaret Thatcher’s former PR guru Lord Bell provoked anger on social media after he made light of the downing of a Germanwings plane on 24 March this year.

Preparing his audience for his joke, Baron Bell of Belgravia said humour was generally “at the expense of somebody”.

“There's a terrible knock knock joke going around at the moment,” he said, “which I'm not going to do on air because I'll probably get shot.”

The Tory peer then ignored his own advice and told the joke anyway: "Knock Knock. Who's there? The pilot,” he said, before laughing.

The joke is a reference to the faint banging on the cockpit door heard in an otherwise silent recording of the air crash.

Investigators believe the crash was caused by the plane’s co-pilot deliberately crashing the plane while the pilot was locked outside, killing 144 passengers and six crew members.

BBC Radio 5Live host Adrian Chiles said the joke was “awful” and apologised to listeners for the peer’s joke at the end of the show.

The peer compared the joke to celebratory chanting about Margaret Thatcher upon the announcement of her death. Baroness Thatcher was a close friend of Lord Bell’s.

Lord Bell is most well known for masterminding the Tories’ election victories under Baroness Thatcher and was made Baron Bell of Belgravia in 1990 after a nomination by Tony Blair.

He is part of the namesake of Bell Pottinger, the international PR company that has represented the government of Bahrain, defence company EADS, and fracking firm Cuadrilla.